


Mornings at Leblanc

by xenoglossy



Category: Persona 5
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 08:17:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17700755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xenoglossy/pseuds/xenoglossy
Summary: Sae and Tae keep running into each other at  the cafe.





	Mornings at Leblanc

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zen_monk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zen_monk/gifts).



“You know, I see you in here all the time, but we’ve never introduced ourselves.”

“Huh?” said Sae, her head snapping up as the woman who had spoken sat down next to her at the counter.

“Oh, sorry, did I startle you? I have that effect on people sometimes,” said the woman, smiling as if at a private joke.

“Not at all,” said Sae. “I was just focused on this coffee.”

“Mornings, huh? I get it,” said the woman. “Anyway, I’m Takemi Tae. I have a clinic just down the street.”

“Niijima Sae,” Sae said. “I’m a public defender.”

Takemi raised an eyebrow. “You’re a long way from the courthouse.”

“I know. The coffee is very good here, though.” It was a poor excuse, but Sae couldn’t possibly begin to explain to a stranger why she’d started coming here or what her attachment to this place was.

“That’s true, but there must be good coffee that’s less out of your way. I won’t pry, though.”

“So, you’re a doctor?” Sae said, taking the first change of subject that came to mind. “I wouldn’t have guessed.”

Takemi laughed. “Well, I’m my own boss--and my only employee--so I don’t exactly have a dress code. I do have a lab coat, though.”

“Do you like it?” said Sae. “Working for yourself, I mean?”

“It beats the alternative, that’s for sure,” Takemi said, with a bitterness that took Sae by surprise. 

Well, Takemi had been tactful enough not to ask Sae questions she wouldn’t want to answer, so Sae could do her the same courtesy. “I’ve certainly had bosses I could do without.”

“And anyway, this way I can conduct my experiments without any annoying oversight,” Takemi said, giving “experiments” a bit of dramatic emphasis, a deliberately ominous weight, like she was some sort of mad scientist from a children’s television show.

“Experiments?”

“Just a joke,” Takemi said, with a grin. Sae wasn’t entirely sure what to make of that.

“Well,” Takemi continued, glancing at her phone, “I should really be going. But maybe we’ll run into each other here again?”

She was, Sae was fairly sure, fishing for an invitation to chat again should that happen. Did Sae want to give her that license? Their conversation had been odd. But before she had properly deliberated, she found herself saying, “We probably will. I don’t always have time to come here during the week, but I do when I can.”

“Great,” said Takemi. “See you around, then!”

Sae sipped her coffee and wondered if that had really been wise. But then, it was probably good for her to have a friend, or a friendly acquaintance, at least, outside of work. In her years as a prosecutor, and especially while she was with the SIU, she had sort of forgotten how to do that--that it was even possible, really. So perhaps this would work out for the best.

\---

There was something peaceful, Sae thought, about drinking coffee on a rainy day. It made her feel somehow distant from the everyday world, from all her responsibilities. She might have expected Takemi's presence to diminish the effect, but so far that didn't seem to be the case. Perhaps it was because Takemi herself belonged, in Sae's mind, to the sealed-off world of Leblanc, unconnected to the rest of Sae's life.

“Terrible weather, huh?” said Takemi. “I kind of like it, though. It makes everything seem... quieter, somehow.”

“I know what you mean.”

“Of course, I appreciate it more in here than when I'm out in it. But still.”

“Yes, I'm sure by the time I get to work I'll be damp and it won't seem so nice, but at least I can appreciate it for now.”

The conversations they'd had lately, Sae thought, had all been so much more normal than their first one. It occurred to her suddenly that Takemi might have been nervous that first time, or at least found it a bit awkward to try to introduce herself to someone that way, as if maybe she didn't do so often. It felt strange to think that; Takemi seemed so confident, the way she held herself, the way she dressed in clothes Sae herself would never have the courage to wear even if she'd been allowed to. But a facade of confidence wasn't so hard to put up; Sae should know.

“You okay?” said Takemi, breaking into her thoughts.

“What?”

“It seemed like you zoned out, there. And you were kind of staring at me. Do I have something on my face, or something?”

“Oh, no, I was just... appreciating the peaceful atmosphere.”

Takemi grinned. “If you say so.”

\---

“Hey, long time no see.”

“Sorry,” Sae said, taking her usual seat next to Takemi. “Work has been keeping me busy lately.”

“Yeah, I know how it can get,” said Takemi. “Technically there isn’t anyone keeping me at the clinic if I don’t want to be there, but if someone comes in at the last minute with something that would take a while to deal with or is having an emergency after hours... well, I have a responsibility, I feel.”

“Exactly,” said Sae.

She ordered her coffee and then went back to catching up with Takemi. It was strange, she thought, how easy she found Takemi to talk to. Sae found few people easy to talk to. Even her sister was difficult--perhaps especially her sister. But Takemi was different--perhaps because of the way she seemed to take everything in without judgment, or perhaps just because interactions with her weren’t loaded with either a whole history of disappointments and failures to communicate, as they were with Makoto, or with professional significance, as they were with her co-workers (and who else did Sae talk to?).

“You know,” Takemi said, once Sae had given her the highlights of her last few weeks at work, “I really admire what you do. I know defense attorneys get some flak for it--trying to let dangerous criminals loose on our streets, and all that--but I wouldn’t want to live in a country where prosecutors had their way all the time, either. You’re saving lives out there.”  
Sae looked at Takemi for a moment, unsure how to respond. “I try,” she said, finally. “I don’t always succeed.”

“Yeah, well, neither do I. But what matters is that you try--or at least that’s what I tell myself so I can sleep at night.”

“To be honest with you, I was a prosecutor myself until rather recently,” said Sae, feeling like she had somehow misrepresented herself, allowed Takemi a rosier picture than she should have.

“Yeah? Why the change?” Sae had been watching Takemi’s face for signs of disappointment, but she looked merely curious.

“I... I realized I had lost sight of what was really important to me. I suppose that’s a cliche, but... I’d gone into it with these ideals of justice and protecting the weak. I was too naive at first to see that that wasn’t what the system was set up to uphold, and before I knew it I’d become part of its machinery and forgotten why I was there in the first place. All I cared about was winning. But I met someone who changed my perspective, and because of him I realized I couldn’t go on that way.”

“He sounds important to you. Your boyfriend, or...?”

Surprised, Sae let out a short laugh before she could stop herself. “No, he’s a bit too young for that.” Was it her imagination, or did Takemi look relieved? “He’s simply... someone with an unusual way of seeing things.”

“I knew someone like that myself,” Takemi said. “I left the hospital I’d been working at because I thought I’d made a terrible mistake--a fatal mistake. I opened up the clinic after that, because I guess I didn’t know what else to do with myself, but I was scared to try things if I thought I would fail, or to let myself care as much. But then this weird kid started coming in with weird injuries, and, long story short, somehow he ended up reminding me why I’d become a doctor at all.”

Silence fell for a moment. Then Takemi added, “Wasn’t enough to make me go back to the hospital, though. But I guess that’s obvious.”

“It seems like you do plenty of good right here,” Sae told her. “I’m sure the residents of Yongen-Jaya would be sad to see you go.”

“If only because I’m the only game in town--or in the neighborhood, anyway.” Takemi gave a wry smile. 

“I’d say that’s exactly what makes you so important.”

Takemi took a long drink of her coffee, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, then smiled. “Maybe you’re right.”

\---

When Sae walked into the coffee shop, Takemi greeted her with a smile, and it occurred to Sae to wonder when Takemi had started to be so genuinely happy to see her. Takemi had always smiled easily, but in the beginning that had felt like as much of a way to hold others at arm's length as cold formality would have been. This was different, but it had changed so gradually Sae hadn’t noticed it happening.

They went through the usual routine of coffee-ordering and small talk, but there was a question that had been nagging at Sae for a while, and finally her curiosity got the better of her.

“This is going to sound strange,” she began, “but... last December, right before Christmas, did you... notice anything unusual happening?”

Takemi glanced at Sojiro, who was washing some dishes, as if to make sure he was far enough away not to overhear, though Sae suspected this precaution was unnecessary. Lowering her voice, she said, “Unusual like... raining blood, for example?”

“Much like that, yes,” said Sae. “We have some things in common, I suppose.”

“What, we didn’t before?” said Takemi, wide-eyed in mock offense.

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I’m not sure I do. Do you want to get dinner sometime and talk about it?”

“Dinner?” said Sae, caught off-guard.

“Well, I’d start by taking you for coffee, but...” Takemi waved a hand, taking in their surroundings.

This, Sae was fairly sure, was an invitation for a date. Sae had not dated women before. She had hardly dated anyone before, for that matter. There had been Makoto and there had been her job, and she hadn’t had time to even consider what she might want to do, let alone to do it. This being the case, acceptance might be foolish. Irresponsible, even.

But she couldn’t deny that she’d felt a certain excitement at being asked. And one had to start somewhere, didn’t one? Perhaps, just this once, it would be all right not to worry about what would be the most responsible thing to do.

By now, Sae realized, she had been silent for an awkwardly long time.

“Of course, if you’re not interested, that’s fine as well,” Takemi said. “Hopefully I haven’t completely scared you off, because I do enjoy talking to you, all else aside, but if you need some space after this...”

“Not at all,” said Sae. “That is, I would love to get dinner.”

“Excellent,” said Takemi--or Tae, as Sae supposed she should think of her now. “Though even though I was the one who issued the invitation, I might need your input on restaurants. I don’t get out of Yongen-Jaya much...”

“I don’t get out much at all, I’m afraid,” said Sae.

“Oh well,” said Tae. “We’ll have to figure it out together.”


End file.
